Generating sustainable electricity from ambient humidity and natural evaporation has attracted tremendous interest recently as it requires no extra mechanical energy input and is deployable across all weather and geography conditions. Here, we present a device prototype for enhanced power generation from ambient humidity. This prototype uses both heterogenous materials assembled from a LiCl-loaded cellulon paper to facilitate moisture adsorption and a carbon-black-loaded cellulon paper to promote water evaporation. Exposing such a centimeter-sized device to ambient humidity can produce voltages of around 0.78 V and a current of around 7.5 μA, both of which can be sustained for more than 10 days. The enhanced electric output and durability are due to the continuous water flow that is directed by evaporation through numerous, negatively charged channels within the cellulon papers. The voltage and current exhibit an excellent scaling behavior upon device integration to sufficiently power commercial devices including even cell phones. The results open a promising prospect of sustainable electricity generation based on a synergy between spontaneous moisture adsorption and water evaporation.

从环境湿度和自然蒸发中产生可持续电力最近引起了极大的兴趣，因为它不需要额外的机械能输入，并且可以在所有天气和地理条件下部署。在这里，我们展示了一个设备原型，用于从环境湿度中增强发电。该原型使用由负载 LiCl 的纤维素纸组装而成的异质材料以促进水分吸附，并使用负载炭黑的纤维素纸组装以促进水分蒸发。将这种厘米大小的设备暴露在环境湿度下会产生约 0.78 V 的电压和约 7.5 μA 的电流，这两种情况都可以持续 10 天以上。增强的电力输出和耐用性是由于通过大量蒸发引导的连续水流，纤维素纸内带负电的通道。电压和电流在设备集成时表现出出色的缩放行为，足以为包括手机在内的商用设备供电。该结果为基于自发水分吸附和水蒸发之间的协同作用的可持续发电开辟了广阔的前景。